Contents¶
This Blender course consists of two parts, that are each taught separately online over the course of a number of weeks:
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In the Basics module we assume no prior knowledge of Blender. We will introduce Blender from the ground up, starting with the user interface and basic functionality. We cover the 3D scene, cameras, lights and materials and some basic mesh editing.
It helps to have some familiarity with basic 3D graphics concepts, such as 3D geometry, transformations and rendering. But if not, you will probably pick those up quite quickly during the course.
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In the Advanced module of the course we assume participants already have basic knowledge of Blender, preferably by following our basics course. We assume participants are familiar with the Blender user interface, basic functionality and concepts like the 3D scene, cameras, lights, materials and some basic mesh editing.
The advanced part goes into detail on the Python API for scripting, node-based materials, mesh editing and first steps in animation. The main goal of the Advanced course is for you to realize your own project with Blender, based on data you choose.
Blender version¶
Version updates
We will switch to Blender 4.1 (to be released 26 March 2024) for courses in 2024, with the materials updated in Q1 2024.
We currently use Blender 4.1 for this course and the materials provided. This also means that any links to the Blender manuals are for that specific version, to be consistent.
Blender as a software package is a fast moving target, usually with lots of shiny new features and bug fixes in each release (and multiple releases per year). This is great, of course, but with each release usually also a lot of small tweaks and improvements are made, especially in the user interface and workflow.
Course videos using previous Blender versions
Some of the videos used in the course might still show an earlier Blender version. In those cases we have estimated that the video is still (largely) up-to-date and have chosen not to update the video, as this is quite time-consuming.
LTS versions¶
We originally planned to only base this course on the Blender LTS (Long-Term Support) releases, which remain more-or-less unchanged regarding UI and features for roughly 2 years. But each new release brings some major and minor improvements, that would only become available in the next LTS release much later. Hence, we chose to update the course more regularly.
Prerequisites¶
You will need:
- A system (PC or laptop) to work on. This can be a Linux, macOS or Windows system. It is preferred to use a system with a somewhat recent GPU (or at most 10 years old) with working OpenGL 4.3 support. See the section "Hardware Requirements" on this page for the official requirements for running Blender.
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Blender 4.1 installed on the above system. You can download it from here, or you can use your system package manager to install it.
A Linux distribution's package for Blender
Sometimes a the blender package from a distro gets built with slightly different versions of software libraries, compared to the official Blender distribution. This is known to sometimes cause different behaviour or even bugs, for example in the handling of video files by the FFmpeg library. In case you find strange issues or bugs with your distro's Blender you might want to try downloading the official Blender binaries to see if that fixes those issues.
Minor version difference okay
It is in general not recommended to use a wildly different Blender version for this course, due to possible mismatches in the user interface and functionality with the course material. A different minor version, e.g. 4.1.2 instead of 4.1.0 if it should become available, should not cause issues, but a future 4.x release might have some major changes.
- Please test the Blender installation before the course starts using the instructions sent by e-mail. This will tell you if Blender is working correctly and can save you (and us) time fixing any system-related issues during the course period.
Recommended:
- Using a 3-button mouse is preferred, as not all Blender functionality is easily used through 2-button mouse or laptop track-pad.